


Refuge

by geronimon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Other, POV Rose Quartz (Steven Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 22:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16438319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geronimon/pseuds/geronimon
Summary: The plan goes off the rails and the Crystal Gems must retire to the Secret Armory. Rose waits for Pearl and ponders.





	Refuge

**Author's Note:**

> This story occurs before The Answer but after We're Now Only Falling Apart.

The ringing of bare feet splashed in the mud incessantly. Water soaked her gown and dyed it with dirt, step after step, but she couldn’t stop. She had to keep running.

Meanwhile, cold infiltrated her toes and fingers with humid pain, and she felt it. She felt it with every bit of her being, that cluster of sensations she had never experimented in the thousands of years of her existence at Homeworld. She would never wear a pair of shoes ever again, she knew it. It was bound to happen.

How could she, after everything that had happened?

Rose Quartz ran. And the downpour stung her curls like feet in the swamp. At her shoulder she carried a bag she wouldn’t let go for the world. It was not the rainfall who would take it, but who was hiding in it. The treacherous wall of water camouflaged the prosecutor that was clearly stalking her on. She could hear their track. No matter how, she had to lose sight of them, before reaching the base.

The mist eased the escape. It was low and dense enough to take a leap and deceive her hunter. So in the moment she discerned a protrusion in the rock, she got a running start and launched herself to the sky, scraping a ceiling made of clouds. Whoever was following them wouldn’t see them from here. It was impossible.

They were in the clear. But the armory was still too far away. She barely could make out the next slope in the route, or spot the steep stairs to the deepest parts of the secret cave. It was not a coincidence that the path was so complicated. The difficult access was necessary, otherwise everything could get out of their hands at any instant, and their secrets would get exposed. She couldn’t allow that, and that’s why she and Pearl chose the most remote and stark place they could find.

Not a lot of people knew that the mountain was hollow inside, excavated by the heavy rain that lashed the landscape and percolated through the pores of the permeable limestone, deep into the crust. Beyond that, a semi-flooded almost-labyrinthine chain of caverns opened before her, where the ways of getting lost were not lacking. An underground river. Theretofore, she had took all the effort she could to memorize the path. The stalactites could seem all the same to the inexpert eye that casually wandered here, but Rose knew that every formation was unique in its own way and she had come to recognize every single one of them.

With impossible nimbleness, she zig-zagged between the calcic columns like the gem she wasn’t and finally landed, graceful, on the polished and familiar floor of the Armory. No Bismuth could have been the author of such a piece. It was not possible, at least not during the first years of the rebellion, much less now. The place had to stay secret to everyone else so it could serve as a sanctuary for their shenanigans.

And they needed a safe spot where they could operate from. Where they could train. The moon observatory had stopped being adequate when Blue and Yellow started to take note of the amount of “trouble” the colony was giving Pink, and their visits were more frequent and unexpected. They couldn’t hide anything there anymore. But if any of the other Diamonds showed up right there and Pink wasn’t there, she definitely was in for it.

The worst part was that Pearl was gone. And she’d probably be for several weeks. Rose opened the bag she had been sentrying the entire journey, and cradled a delicate almond-shaped jewel out. Her bulky fingers acted as a refuge and a nest for the little egg, protecting it like it was a treasure to cherish. It was. Pearl’s form had been dissipated again after a conflict at the Spire.

She couldn’t return without her, couldn’t she? Blue and Yellow would notice. Maybe. Although she wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t, knowing how _much_ they cared about anything that happened around them. If they were minimally perceptive, they would have sussed the lie years ago. But Pink would certainly feel Pearl’s absence.

She couldn’t do this without her. Ever since she put her feet on the ground, their relationship had flourished into the most singular and inappropriately personal way possible.

The tabooed rush made her construct vibrate just at the right frequency, and it felt good. Her cheeks slipped out a blush, but nobody was there to see.

Rose was so proud of seeing Pearl thinking for herself at last. She couldn’t have figured in a million years that the pearl she had met then for the first time would, in the future, do things as incredible and brave as wielding her sword and cut through the form of five guards with only the power of her wits, or designing this entire place herself, or building it!

How could she be so extraordinary? So colourful, so creative and smart. How come she didn’t know about all these things she could do?

Was it Pink’s fault? She was never like that when they had to resume their original roles, specially with Blue and Yellow in front of them. Pearl was always tense trying to fulfill the purpose she had been commissioned for. No, she only was herself when Rose Quartz was there and both forgot their true places.

If Rose were always, Pearl could be free to be whoever she was.

At the center of the monument, Rose sighed. _You could even be my friend._

She turned back her sight to the gem sheltered between her pale hands. Without notice, her fingers danced on its surface, like playful tickling, as thoughts trailed off within herself.

What will they do when they finally scare everyone off of the Earth? What will they do when there is no more Rose Quartz? No more Pearl? She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that nothing would be the same as it was now. That they would have to return to their same old routines, to the same places that they had come from, to the loneliness and the frustration of falling to deaf ears.

She wished with all her being that they could slam the door open and get out, and run away to never go back. She could be a quartz, and Pearl would be glad of not having to serve Pink ever again. The view of those roles inverting like that, a diamond serving a pearl, was deeply ironic. How absurd, grotesque even, other gems would think. But throughout the years, the idea of it had become more and more interesting to her. And she couldn’t get it out of her head.

What would Pearl think of said prospect? Rose wondered.

“Could you imagine, Pearl?” she whispered to the oval nacre, too sweet and softly for the echo to snatch her words away. And she smiled, genuinely.


End file.
